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Elementary 

School-Oriented

Middle 

School-Oriented

Students create their own recipes in a fun cooking competition involving local chefs. 

Objective

Build food preparation skills and motivate students to try fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthy food options 

prepared in new ways. 

The Event

Student teams work with local chefs to create their own recipes. Later, during a schoolwide event, students prepare the dishes 

they envisioned, and judges (a panel of local chefs or the student body) evaluate each dish. The team with the highest-scoring 

dish is named the winner. The competition can involve multiple award levels or even different categories of awards (e.g., best 

vegetable dish, best whole-grain dish).

Planning 

Form a “Chef in You” planning team. Involve wellness committee members, school nutrition directors, teachers, afterschool 

program directors, students, local chefs, and registered dietitians from your community. Hold an initial planning meeting 2 

months prior to the event to determine event details. What will constitute a student team? Who is eligible to enter (for example, 

what grades)? How will students register for the competition? Where will the competition be held?

During the initial meeting, committee members should determine when and where to hold the competition. (For 

instance, consider using the school auditorium in order to accommodate friends, families, and other guests.) Who will secure 

the availability of this space? How will ingredients be stored?

Determine the date of the “cookoff” event. Consider holding the event after school hours in March, during National Nutrition 

Month, and invite the whole school, as well as families and friends, to attend and cheer on student teams. Determine how long each 

student team will have to prepare their recipe (try 45 minutes) and how each will present its dishes. Try holding the competition in 

conjunction with a nutrition and wellness fair, with displays about healthy food choices and physical activity. 

Plan for how chefs (and others) will work with student teams. Local chefs can meet with students prior to the event to 

help develop recipes and conduct taste-tests of healthy food choices the students can integrate into their dishes. The day of 

the event, local chefs can assist students on stage while they prepare their chosen dishes in front of the audience. 

Identify the type of dishes students will create. The competition doesn’t have to involve cooking over a stove or using an oven 

– students can create a yogurt-based vegetable dip with a variety of spices and prechopped vegetables, or a salad made from 

locally sourced produce. Think about the equipment and resources you have available for storing and preparing food. Alternatively, 

consider filming student food demonstrations from a test kitchen and then showing the videos of the finalists during the event 

(making sure to obtain release forms for all participants). If your school has a culinary program, this may provide both a location and 

a chance for students to work under the guidance of a culinary professional. 

Select healthy ingredients. Featuring beans, peas, whole grains, and multicolored vegetables (especially dark green, red, 

and orange) is a great way to generate interest in and excitement about these typically underconsumed foods. Determine how 

to solicit ingredient donations from local grocery stores, farms, or restaurants. Decide how and where to announce the key 
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Planning (cont’d) 

ingredients. Consider adding in a “mystery ingredient” unveiled the day of the event or as a part of the recipe criteria shared 

ahead of time. Also consider generating awareness about farm-to-school by asking students to create recipes with regionally 

produced foods.

If you plan to establish nutrition requirements for eligible recipes, consider who will assist students with the nutrient 

analysis, such as community dietitians or older students. For example, the Recipes for Healthy Kids Competition set the 

following nutrient requirements per serving: < 35 percent of total calories from fat; < 10 percent of total calories from saturated fat; 

< 35 percent of calories from sugar; < 480 mg sodium for side items; and ≤ 600 mg sodium for entrées (main dishes). For more 

information on the Recipes for Healthy Kids Competition, visit http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/resource-library.

Establish safety rules. Talk with your school district, principal, and local health department about food allergy and food 

safety policies. Give contestants and volunteers safety and hand-washing training. Also, provide information about rules of 

conduct in the food demonstration area, checking with the school administration regarding the need for permission slips, 

liability waivers, proper clothing, etc.

Define judging procedures and criteria. Decide what factors judges (or students) will use to evaluate the dishes and how your 

school will reveal the winning recipe. Consider judging against criteria such as ease of preparation and nutrition. Determine how 

many rounds of judging will be involved. Will you first select a group of semi-finalists based on recipe submissions and then hold 

a cookoff competition to determine the winner(s)? Will there be public voting? Is the student body allowed to vote on their favorite 

recipe?

Promote the competition. Posters, announcements over the loudspeaker, school newsletter placements, and emails are 

a great way to get the word out. (See page 3 for more promotion tips.) You can also promote the event through your school 

parent organization (e.g., PTA, PTO). If possible, consider providing student participants with paper chef hats (your parent 

organization or a local community organization may be willing to donate these).

School

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Involve the entire school in the cookoff event through a “Popular Choice” award, where 

students vote for their favorite recipe.

If the school has a garden, have teams incorporate the garden’s food into their recipes. 

Classroom 

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Use Team Nutrition curricula and lessons (see appendix, page 94) to teach students about 

your competition’s featured ingredients in a way that also meets educational standards for 

math, science, or English and language arts. 

Specifically, refer to Team Nutrition’s two garden-related curricula, Dig In! and The Great Garden 

Detective Adventure (see appendix, page 95), for ways to give a broader range of students an 

opportunity to create a fruit or vegetable dish. The Discover MyPlate curriculum (see appendix, 

page 94) also includes simple “Look & Cook” cards for use with kindergarteners. 

If your school offers family and consumer sciences (or home economics) classes, consider 

having students plan out a day’s worth of meals for a family of four. The teacher should give 

students a budget and a set of nutrition criteria. Tailor the degree of difficulty according to 

grade level.
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Team Up for Success (cont’d)

Cafeteria

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School nutrition services staff can be part of teams or the judging panel and can adapt the 

winning recipe for inclusion on the school lunch or breakfast menu. 

The school nutrition director can recommend available ingredients and equipment to prepare 

the recipes and also provide suggestions on how the dish can be easily integrated into a 

meal that meets meal pattern requirements. 

Community

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Contact local culinary programs (possibly at universities or area food banks), restaurant 

associations, and large hotels to solicit chef and judge volunteers. 

Ask local kitchen supply stores for prize donations to give to the winning students (such as 

chef’s coats or gift cards).

Consider forming a chef-school partnership through the Chefs Move to Schools program 

(http://www.letsmove.gov/chefs-move-schools). 

Media 

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Invite media to attend the competition; ask if the local newspaper will include the recipes 

developed in the kids’ or food section of the paper. 

Invite school broadcast students to film the cooking competition and share the videos on 

the school’s cable network or online. (Make sure to secure video release forms for students 

featured in videos.)

Post blogs about the different recipes and students’ experiences creating and tasting them, 

with students contributing to the writing. 

Share photos of the submitted dishes on the school’s social media channels or Web site.

Home

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Your school’s parent organization (e.g., PTA, PTO) may be able to assist you by providing 

volunteers for the event or funding for purchasing food and supplies. 

Invite families and friends to the cookoff event, and consider holding a meet-and-greet in 

the school lobby with guests and staff to taste-test creations.

Following the event, compile all of the recipes (as well as some additional healthy school 

favorites) into a cookbook. Students can hold a fundraiser (for example, during Global Child 

Nutrition Month in April) and offer these cookbooks to families and friends for a small donation. 

Students can also demonstrate how to cook these recipes at home.
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Providence Career Technical Academy in Providence, RI, hosts an annual Future Chef Cook-Off. Each year, the school 

selects a different group of students to participate and identifies a different recipe category for the challenge. The first year, 

middle school students were tasked with developing and cooking a healthy breakfast recipe; another year, students in 

elementary school came up with healthy salad options. Local chefs mentored the students as they developed their recipes, 

and guests were able to taste competition entries.

Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) in Florida took this one step further, partnering with Chefs Move to Schools. The 

schools participated in an event at Edgewater High School in Orlando, where chefs, school food nutrition managers, and students 

from 10 schools cooked healthy “chef inspired, kid approved” recipes in front of hundreds of students wearing chef’s hats in the 

auditorium. The students later had a chance to sample the food items, which debuted on the school menu that year. They 

created nutritious items such as fish tacos with tilapia, shredded carrots, red and green cabbage, bok choy, and avocado in a 

whole-grain tortilla; and a fruit roll with cantaloupe, melon, strawberries, and pineapple rolled in rice paper. 

Six of the new recipes from the event were also submitted to the Recipes for Healthy Kids Competition, which provides another 

opportunity for chefs to work with students to enhance the school food environment. OCPS’s accomplishments through the 

Chefs Move to Schools program have earned the district national recognition, and the program serves as a model for other 

schools around the country.

[Photo] (L) A student chops vegetables as part of the 2012 Future Chef Cook-Off. 

[Photo] (R) One of the Future Chef healthy breakfast entries: a mini mushroom quiche.